(EFCC Press
Release) Fresh details have emerged as to how the duo of Samuel Saleh Umoru,
chief accounting officer of the Makurdi Zonal Office of the Joint Admissions
and Matriculation Board, JAMB and Mrs Philomina Chieshe, a clerical officer in
the same office, conspired to stop the Board’s auditor, Mallam Ibrahim Oba,
from carrying out a financial audit of the zonal office with a bribe of
N50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira).
This was
revealed by the first prosecution witness, Patrick Obilo who is also an auditor
with the Board, as he appeared before Justice Peter Affen of the FCT High
Court, Maitama, Abuja on Monday, September 30, 2019.
Umoru and
Chieshe are first and second defendants respectively in a charge brought against
them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over the
disappearance of JAMB’s N35,000,000 (Thirty-five Million Naira) in its Makurdi
Zonal Office, where both work.
During Obilo’s
cross-examination by prosecution counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, he disclosed that
Oba was sent to the Makurdi Office of JAMB in 2016 for a routine examination of
the account books and consignment notes, which show quantities of items
supplied such as e-facility cards-used to check and print results, change of
course card, scratch cards, question and answer cards, receipts or tellers.
He revealed that during this procedure Chieshe
visited Oba’s hotel room with an envelope containing a sum of N50,000 as
“gift” from her boss, Umoru, and urged him to return to Abuja.
The auditor according to Obilo, sensed danger
and returned to Abuja and reported the situation to the head of JAMB’s Audit
Unit, James Ochijele, who ordered that the N50,000 “gift” be paid
into the Board’s account.
Ochijele had to
replace Oba with the witness (Obilo) for the same assignment in the Makurdi
office. While examining the books of accounts in the Makurdi Office, Obilo said
he discovered a shortfall in the proceeds from the sales of e-facility cards
and change of course forms to the tune of N35,480,000, which were not remitted
to the Board’s account.
Asked for
explanation, Chieshe began to cry as she gave all manners of justifications for
the disappearance of the money, including a tale that a mystery snake had
been swallowing the money in Umoru’s office, even as it was kept in a safe.
In another incredible story, she claimed that
a mermaid appeared to her in her bedroom to attack her at various times and
that her house maid is a witch.
Real trouble
started for Umoru and Chieshe with the coming on board of Professor Ishaq
Oloyede as JAMB’s registrar, who set up a reconciliation committee to look into
the accounts of all the state offices. This committee unearthed monumental
stealing.
With no
objections from counsel to the defendants, the prosecution tendered the report
of the reconciliation committee and its summary, which Justice Affen admitted
in evidence.
Under cross-examination by Mark Fees, counsel to Chieshe, Obilo said each of
the e-facility cards, change of course forms and other cards are sold at N1000
per unit, disclosing that Umoru was the coordinator of the sales at that time
in his capacity as the chief accounting officer of the Board’s Makurdi Office
and had the record of every cards that were delivered to the office and the
proceeds realised from the sales.
Responding to Chieshe’s claim that she made some payments into the Board’s
account but has lost the tellers, the witness revealed that the bank statements
which were traced for confirmation of the said payments did not establish any
of such payments as claimed by the second defendant .
The trial judge adjourned the matter to January 21, 2020, for continuation trial.
